Poetry and Literary Terms Flashcards

Flashcards for review of poetry concepts and literary devices.

Lyric

A short verse that expresses the author's emotions; often set to music.

Refrain or Chorus

The repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals at the end of each stanza.

Repetition

The repeating of a word or phrase within a poem or a prose piece to create a sense of rhythm.

Rhyme

The similarity or likeness of sound existing between two words. Examples: 'cat' and 'hat'.

Rhymed Verse

Verse with end rhyme that usually has regular meter.

Sonnet

A poem consisting of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter.

Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet

Has two parts; an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six) usually rhyming abbaabba, cdecde. Often a question is raised in the octave that is answered in the sestet.

Shakespearean (English or Elizabethan) Sonnet

Consists of three quatrains (four lines) and a final rhyming couplet (two lines). The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Usually the question or theme is set forth in the quatrains while the answer or resolution appears in the final couplet.

Sijo Poetry

Korean verse related to Haiku and comprised of three lines of 14-16 syllables each, for a total of 44-46 syllables. The first line introduces an idea or story, the second signals a 'turn,' and the third provides closure.

Stanza

A division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains.

Couplet

Two line stanza.

Triplet

Three line stanza.

Quatrain

Four line stanza.

Quintet

Five line stanza.

Sestet

Six line stanza.

Septet

Seven line stanza.

Octave

Eight line stanza.

Hyperbaton

An inversion of the normal order of words, especially for the sake of emphasis.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration occurs.

Imagery

A word or group of words that appeals to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell.

Irony

A contrast between appearance and reality--usually one in which reality is the opposite of what one expects.

Metaphor

A comparison made by calling one item another item.

Metonymy

The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant.

Mood

The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work.

Narrator

The character or voice from whose point of view events are told.

Non-fiction

Any writing based entirely on facts, real and true events.

Onomatopoeia

A literary device wherein the sound of a word echoes the sound it represents.

Oxymoron

A combination of contradictory terms.

Paradox

A situation or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not.

Personification

A figure of speech that endows ideas, or inanimate objects with human traits or abilities.

Pleonasm

The use of more words than are necessary to convey meaning, either as a fault of style or for emphasis.

Plot

The structure or series of events in a story.

Point-of-view

The author's point-of-view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker or 'teller' of the story or poem.

Prosaic

An adjective that describes writing that lacks interest, imagination, or excitement (dull, colorless).

Pun

A play on words when a word is used to convey two meanings at the same time.

Resolution

See denouement and falling action.

Rising action

The events in a story that moves the plot along by adding complications or expanding the conflict. Builds suspense to the climax or turning point.

Repetition

The repeating of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas.

Setting

The time and place in which a story unfolds.

Simile

A comparison using 'like' or 'as'.

Soliloquy

In drama, a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud.

Story Elements

The important parts of the story, including characters, setting, plot, problem, and solution.

Style

A particular way in which a piece of literature is written; how it is written.

Symbolism

A character, an action, a setting, or an object representing something else.

Synechdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa.

Theme

An ingredient of a literary work, which gives the work unity. Concerns itself with a work's message.

Tone

Expresses the author's attitude or feeling toward his/her subject.

Tragedy

A dramatic work that presents a downfall of a character.

Zoomorphism

Giving animal-like qualities to anything that is not that animal.

Ballad

A poem in verse that tells a story.

Blank Verse

An unrhymed form of poetry that normally consists of ten syllables in which every other syllable, beginning with the second, is stressed.

Couplet

Two lines of verse the same length that usually rhyme.

End rhyme

The rhyming of words that appear at the ends of two or more lines of poetry.

Enjambment

The running over of a sentence or thought from one line of poetry to another

Free Verse

Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

Haiku

Japanese poetry that has three lines; the first line has five syllables, the second has seven syllables, and the third has five syllables.

Heroic Couplet (Closed Couplet)

Two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought

Internal Rhyme

When the rhyming words occur in the same line of poetry.